Process for treating kelp.



J. W. CHENEY. PROCESS FOR TREATING KELP! APPLICATION FILED DEC. 15. I913- Patented Jan. 18

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JOHN W. CHENEY, OF LOS .ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

PROCESS FOR TREATING KELP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 15, 1915;.v Serial No. 806,716.

i 0. all whom may concern:

Be it known that I, Jonn W. CHENEY, a citizen of the Uuitcd'Stat-es, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles, State of California, have invented new and useful lniprovements in Processes for Treating Help, of which the followingis a specific. tion.

'i'his invention relates to a process for treating kelp for the extraction o'l values therefrom, and particularly for the QXill'flC tion of fertilizer or mineral salts together with extraction of various other valuable volatile products; and the invention consists in ccrhiu sequences of crmtinuous operation upon the kelp-,,:md upon the products thereof as are lliflifil'ltl'lit?! specifically described.

t has been found that kelp, and particularly certain species of kelp, contains a very large percentage of ingredients valuable for dil'l'erent purposes. A typical analysis might show that of the total weight water composes perhaps eighty per cent; and the remaining solid constituents may be typically analyzed as follows: From one ton of green kelp about 380 pounds of dry product will he obtained: and this Zllll) pounds may again be divided into about 23ipounds of solid product and about 156 pounds of volatile product. The pounds of solid (which is the substance I may separate for the use as fertiliner) includes about 10 pounds oi potassium and. sodium sulfates, 38 pounds of other sodium salts, 120 pounds of other potassium salts, about pounds oi organic carbon and one pound of iodin. The 156 pounds of volatile substance includes certain substances among which are varnish gum, creosote, alcohol, acetone, and a certain amount of fixed gases which are combustible and consequently of value.

It is the object oi? the invention to provide a simple process and. a simple mechanism for effecting the separation of the kelp into these various constituents and to prepare these various constituents in such form as to be commercially useful.

llhe following detailed specification plains specifically how this object is accomplished; and. the accompanying drawings show a typical plant for 'lerrcd form'of process.

in the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a plan, and Fig: 2 is a longitudinal ver tical section. o a plant suitable for carrying out my proce practising my pre-l I will first explain the apparatus and will then explain the details of the operation of my process.

In the drawings the numeral 10 may designate a suitable platform on which the kelp is received, 11 designates furnaces whose heated gases of combustion pass through rotating driers l2. Thes be rotated from any suitable source of power, being essentially hollow drumswith spiral vanes or shelves 1?) on their interiors, the drums being rotated in the direction which will graduallyfeed the kelp through the drums in the direction indicated. Or any other suitable means may be used for exposing the help to the heat and feeding it along the a 'iparatus. The kelp is fed to the drums through the charging chutes 14 At the farther end of each drum there isa smoke box or the like 15 into which the heated rases ofcombustion pass, thence to pass up the stacks 16. The kelp passes also into this box 15, dropping to the bottom where it is engaged by the screw conveyor 17 and carried to an elevator 18. Elevator 18 leads to the charging chute ll) of the roaster 20. This roaster 20 is similar in construction to the driers 12 excepting that it may be constructed for higher temperature and may have an interior lining 21 of fire brick or'clay' or the like. A furnace 22 is provided to heat the roaster, being in construction'similar to furnaces 11, and at the delivery end of the roaster a box 23 is placed with a stack 24k. A conveyor 25 in the bottom of the box 23 passes the material to an elevator 26 leading to a grinder or pulverizer 27. The ground or pulverized or otherwise comminuted material may be discharged at 28 ready for use as fer-ti maybe passed on for further eXtrac the values contained therein. A pipe 29 leads from the stack 2-1 below a damper 24 therein; and it is designed to pass all or. part of the gases through pipe 29. The damper 24* maybe manipulated to obtain a sufficient draftfor the furnace; or all the gases may be passed along the pipe 29 by any suitable means, say a blower 29".

' The pipe 29 leads to a condenser 30 where a certain amount of condensation takes place; a pipe 31 carries the remaining gases and vapors to a second condenser 32, and a pipe may carry the remaining gases and vapors tothe third condenser 34. lhere may be as many condensers arranged, in

Patented Jan. is, rare.

e rotating driers may 7 kelp nism.

or in any other manner, as maybe desired; from the final condenser, a pipe 35 may lead to a gas reservoir 3 The (ondensates may be drawn from the condensers in any desired manner, say from the points The condensates are then ready for use or for-further refining, separation, etc.

From the conveyer the'conveyer leads to incinerator 50, Constructed similarly to roaster 20. The temperature in the incinerator is'suliicient to ash the pulp fed thereto. -A conveyer 51 leads to digesters ll which are equipped with steam injector pipes 42. Clystallizingr or precipitating vats 43 are connected to receive the solution from the digesters, and a still receives the final liquid. Filter H is interposed between the digesters and crystallizing vats. It will be noted that a pair of driers deliver into one roaster; and in a full plant I contemplate having another set of driers and roaster which will deliver to the incinerator or to the-grinder through conveyers 26 or 4.0 in such an arrangement eachroaster will take the product from two driers and one incinerator will handle the product from two roasters'and from four driers.

It will be understood'that I explain the apparatus merely as a preferred form in which my process may be successfully practised. The apparatus may be altered and the different mechanisms changed and combined, solong as it sullices for tions hereinafter described.

I now explain my process. in detail. The as it is delivered to receiving platform 10 is preferably cut into short lengths, so that it may be cutting'ma y be done by any suitable mecha- The out kelp is fed through the chutes 1% into the driers 12. Sufficient heat is supplied to the drier-s to evaporate most or all of the moisture contained within the kelp, so that the material delivered to the con'veyer 17 is wholly or practically dried.

the opera- I It is desirable to keep the temperature in i the driers at such a quantity of water point that as large a as possible is removed without decomposingthe kelp and without removing the values. It will be understood that the kelp must be at least partially dried previously to roasting; the water must be renamed before proper decompositionby roasting may take place. The percentage of the total water removed'may depend upon operating conditions.

The dried product, some 380 pounds to each. ton of green kelp, passes into the roaster 20 where a higher temperature is kept up. The temperature in the roaster is designed to be sufiicicnt for decomposition of the material without burning it. In practice I may keep the temperature as near, to the charting ten'iperature as possible. Under the influence of the roasting handled easily in bulk. This temperature decomposition of the material takes place and a certain proportion of the constituents is liberated in gaseous and raporous form, some 156 pounds of the 380 pounds of material. Aprn'oximately 224 pounds of material is delivered to conveyor 25 and thence may be taken out to the pul verizer or grinder 27. The gases and vapors are passed through the pipe 29 to the battery of condensers, where fractional condensation takes place.- For instance, the temperature in the first condenser may be kept. at such a point as to condense the most condensableof the vapors; vapors with a lower condensation temperature will be condensed in the second condenser, and so on. The battery of condensers may be ar-- ranged in any manner to condense and separate the various vapors and liquids and solids. The fixed gases pass to a gas receiver- 36. These fixed gases contain combustible gases and may be treated in any desired manner and according to any suitable process for separation and use. Theproducts recovered in the condensers include the varnish gum,-cresote, acetone and alcohol heretofore mentioned; all of these products are i of commercial value.

I have said thatthe solid product may be withdrawn after the second step of my process-after roasting; but for the furtherv extraction of'values it is passed on through other stages of my process. After the vola.. tile and combustible products, have been re moved by roasting, I may then ash thesolid matter without losing any of the valuable constituents. -Accordingly I pass the solids to the incinerator where the greater partof organic carbon is consumed and the mineral salts left in ash form ready to be taken up in solution or otherwise. The ash is passed on through the conveyer 40 to digesters llwhere it is treated with warm water. The constant movement of the ill-- cinerator drum keeps the material in constant' agitation and checks fusing. which I would otherwise occur; thus allowing the use of a higher temperature thanwould otherwise'be the ease. The Water may be heated, and the whole mass agitated, by injection of steam at the bottoms f the digesters through pipes 42. The digesters may be arranged in series so that the'solu-' tion from one may be'pass ed over the solids in the next, and so on, until a saturated solution is had. The saturated solution is Withdrawn intocrystallizing or precipitating vats .23 Where the salts ma'y either be crystallized out at once or may be fractionally crystallized and thus separated, or 125 may be treated in any'other mannerto'extract commercial values. The filter 424: between the digesters and yats insures a pure solution for crystallization; etc. The liquid wearers passed toa still 45 Where the iodin is distilled over. The crystallized salts may be treated inany desired manner to produce or separate commercial salts; the iodin is ob tainedin-uncombined and nearlypure form.

The pulp remaining in the dige'sters after treatment may be removed and used as filler for fertilizer. The salts, etc., obtained from the ash include potassium salts, sodium salts and others. v

It will be seen that the above described steps constitute a continuous process capable of extracting all the known valuable ingredicuts from kelp. By performing operations in the sequence setforth, I am able to save all the values, sacrificing none in order to obtain others. I particularly point to the sequence of drying, roasting and ashing and subsequent operations. The drying operation is necessary in order to carry-out the roasting with e'liiciency. The roasting rcmoves all volatile products which would be otherwise lost'in the ashing operation; and the ashing' operation therefore Wastes none of the values and puts the material into such condition that the salts, etc, are easily extracted. I also particularly point to the fact that my process is continuous, all of the operations being carried on simultaneously.

The operations-of extraction of salts after ashing are not limited to those described herein; various methods Well known to in-' dustrial chemistry may be employed for separation and production of commercially valuable products.

I claim:

l. The herein described continuous pros ass of treating kelp or the first drying the help to remove contained moisture, roasting the dried remainder at a temperature below incineration temperature to drive oil volatile products, and then incinerating the remainder of the ash, and. keeping the material. in constant agitation during incineration, and then dissolving out the mineral salts from the ash.

2. The herein described continuous pro'e ess of treating kelp or the like coi'uijirising first drying the help to remove contain it moisture, roasting the dried remainder at a r temperature below incineration temperature Quinn onaunr, Witnesses W. ll; CONNOR, E. H. BARKICLEW, 

